Celtic fans have missed out on an array of targets over the year, the Ivan Toney deal which they didn’t get done last summer is something many are pointing to as a massive misstep from the club.
As Toney lands goals and assists down south this term, there’s a lot of ‘what ifs’ being thrown around.
Under Peter Lawwell, Celtic’s transfer negotiations have been methodical, if we want to be generous, or tedious and drawn out if you don’t want to be.
There are many deal Celtic have missed out on over the years, one famous deal which never came to fruition would have been a game-changer.
Celtic were offered the services of a young Robert Lewandowski.
It might sound preposterous but there was a time when Robert was a young, hot commodity in football and was looking to make his next move in football outside of Poland, playing for Lech Poznan at the time. The player also famously nearly signed for Blackburn and would have got the deal done had a volcano in Iceland not erupted. Planes grounded because of the ash all over Europe meant the deal never got completed.
Speaking to the Daily Mail a few years ago, football agent Raymond Sparkes admitted that he offered Celtic the chance to sign Robert Lewandowski back in 2009 when Tony Mowbray was the manager.
He said: “They [Lech Poznan] were looking for 1.75m euros for a teenage striker who, at that stage, hadn’t really done anything.
I said to Celtic: “I’ve found a striker you should be looking at”.
“But I probably talked myself out of a deal because I also said to them I didn’t think he justified that kind of fee so early in his career.”
Just a year later after Celtic passed on the striker he was picked up by Borussia Dortmund for €5million. He made his name with the German club before sensationally moving to rivals Bayern on a free transfer where he still plays his football to this day.
Could you imagine Robert Lewandowski in a Celtic jersey?
Hindsight is a great thing, luckily Celtic signed Marc Antoine Fortune so all was good in the end.
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